Webb Telescope Detects Earliest Known Black Hole Merger

Astronomers observe two supermassive black holes merging just 740 million years after the Big Bang, providing new insights into early cosmic evolution.

The merging black holes were found in a galaxy system called ZS7, located over 13 billion light-years away.
One of the black holes is estimated to be 50 million times the mass of the Sun.
The discovery suggests black hole mergers are a key mechanism for rapid growth in the early universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope's infrared capabilities were crucial for detecting this distant event.
Future missions like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) aim to measure gravitational waves from similar mergers.